As Mercedes scored its ninth pole position in ten races through Nico Rosberg, Williams once again proved itself to be the ‘best of the rest’ by qualifying second and third at Hockenheim.

Following Lewis Hamilton’s crash in Q1, Rosberg looked set to go unchallenged en route to pole position. Valtteri Bottas did give him a brief scare late on, but the Finn was happy to settle for second place, feeling that he could have not gone any quicker.

“Yeah, today we must be really happy with the result we got, second and third, well done to everyone,” Bottas said after the session on Saturday. “I think Mercedes is still ahead, but the lap I had at the end was no mistakes and a really nice lap, so really felt I got everything out of the car.”

For Felipe Massa, third place was almost a disappointment as he struggled to get a lap together during qualifying, but he is still happy to be fighting at the front alongside Bottas.

“I think I was struggling to put the lap together,” he said. “I had some movement from the tires and I was not able to have a perfect car, just to put all the sectors together.

“I was able to do one sector better in one way, the other sector better in the other way. The car was not 100 per cent perfect in terms of set-up to put the perfect lap and Valtteri did really a very good lap.

“But anyway I’m still quite happy with the result and I’m quite happy with our car and for sure in the race the conditions are completely different, the feeling of the car as well is different, so let’s try to a very good job tomorrow as well.”

Williams is currently enjoying a revival following a difficult period in the history of the team. Last season, Bottas and former driver Pastor Maldonado could score just five points in total, leaving the team ninth in the constructors’ and as the lowest-ranked scoring team.

This year though, everything has changed. Massa started on pole in Austria, leading an all-Williams front row, whilst Bottas has finished on the podium in the last two races. You would have to think that if Mercedes hits trouble in Germany as it did in Canada, this time it would be Williams who could pick up the pieces.

Congrats to Williams on good qualifying again. It’s interesting that they have a significant top speed advantage over the other Mercedes powered teams but I suspect they are paying the price with less down force in most of the turns. If Williams can remember how to install the wheels on Massa’s car and get their pit strategy right while no one crashes Massa out, the Williams drivers may be able to fight for the win depending on tire wear in the very hot conditions. I think Mercedes still has the upper hand however if they don’t have a mechanical failure so we’ll see how it plays out.

Massa is not the best qualifier except at a couple tracks but he races very well with a decent car. He seems to be at his best during the race where he gets in a comfort zone and just gets the most from the car. That’s tough for many drivers to do in qualifying. Bottas tends to do better in qualifying than in the race though he’s had several good races this year.